Worldwide Security Conference

EWI’s annual Worldwide Security Conference (WSC), heading into its eighth year, is a platform to reframe perceptions of international security threats and opportunities. It mobilizes experts from governments, businesses, NGOs, and academia to make practical recommendations for policy change.

WSC began in 2003 as a response to concerns on both sides of the Atlantic about the need to develop a more comprehensive and collaborative counter-terrorism effort. It has since become an annual event in Brussels, and has broadened to cover most aspects of EWI’s work, including:

  • countering violent extremism
  • protecting people, economies, and infrastructure
  • energy security
  • building a new East West consensus on weapons of mass destruction

Global Reach

Since 2006, EWI has organized Worldwide Security Conferences in partnership with the World Customs Organization and the sitting Chair of the G-8 (Russia in 2006, Germany in 2007, Japan in 2008, and Italy in 2009). Other partners have included the Club of Madrid, the Royal Institution World Science Assembly, and the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

The geographic reach of WSC has expanded every year since the first conference in 2003. With each conference, we have stepped up our efforts to engage new global actors, especially in Asia.

Not Just a Conference

WSC is not just a once-a-year event. EWI convenes series of preparatory and follow-up meetings around the world. We also work to release a steady stream of related publications throughout the year to maintain the momentum of the ideas that emerge in the conference.

The conference attracts representatives from the highest levels of government, business, and civil society around the world. Conference participants and speakers who carry the conferences’ ideas back to a worldwide constituency of policymakers, making WSC an incubator of policy change.

EWI's Worldwide Security Conference

President's Report

EWI's Worldwide Security Conference

John Edwin Mroz recaps EWI’s Worldwide Security Conference, highlighting conversations on security developments in Pakistan, reconciliation in Afghanistan and new approaches towards international cooperation for cybersecurity.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Headlines WSC7

Event Report

Pakistani Foreign Minister Headlines WSC7

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, opened EWI’s seventh annual Worldwide Security Conference arguing for dialogue, development and deterrence to stabilize the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions.

Balancing Cyber Threats and Cyber Benefits

Event Report

Balancing Cyber Threats and Cyber Benefits

Governance, technology and education are the cornerstones of more effective cybersecurity solutions, said Dell Services President Peter Altabef at EWI’s seventh annual Worldwide Security Conference.

PROTECT! Building a Global Network to Combat Terrorists

Publication

PROTECT! Building a Global Network to Combat Terrorists

The world is failing in it's efforts undercut terrorist sentiment across the globe, to succeed a new multilateral political solution is needed to defeat globally networked terrorism.

PROTECT! People, Economies and Infrastructure

Publication

PROTECT! People, Economies and Infrastructure

“Do you feel more secure today than you did one year ago?” The successes have been in countering terrorism, which tend to be palliative, not preventive. There is a distinction between disrupting threats and diminishing the phenomenon.

Climate Terrorists: They Will Come

Commentary

Climate Terrorists: They Will Come

Greg Austin, writing in New Europe, warns that climate change threatens to create a new brand of extremism, especially among burgeoning youth populations in the tropics.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Headlines WSC7

Event Report

Pakistani Foreign Minister Headlines WSC7

Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan, opened EWI’s seventh annual Worldwide Security Conference arguing for dialogue, development and deterrence to stabilize the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions.

Balancing Cyber Threats and Cyber Benefits

Event Report

Balancing Cyber Threats and Cyber Benefits

Governance, technology and education are the cornerstones of more effective cybersecurity solutions, said Dell Services President Peter Altabef at EWI’s seventh annual Worldwide Security Conference.

Sixth Annual Worldwide Security Conference

Event Report

Sixth Annual Worldwide Security Conference

At the EastWest Institute’s sixth annual Worldwide Security Conference, international leaders and counterterrorism experts identified lessons learned from the “Global War on Terror” and ways to measure success in continuing counter-terrorism efforts.